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Ho Iat Seng, Macau’s chief executive and leader, had only warm words with which to describe relations between the semi-autonomous Chinese city and Portugal, its former colonial ruler, in a speech last month. “The friendly co-operation maintained between China and Portugal is an exemplary model of co-operation and exchange,” he said.
His comments, given from the veranda of the spectacular neoclassical residence of the Portuguese consul-general, are a reminder of the enduring influence of the territory’s small but deeply embedded Lusophone community.
It is an influence evident in everything from Macau’s legal system and official languages (Chinese and Portuguese) to its black-and-white cobbled streets and decidedly European public squares, which nestle between the mega-casinos that have made the city the world’s largest gaming hub in recent decades.
Lisbon’s decision to grant citizenship rights to a broad swath of Macau residents born before 1981 means there are more than 140,000 Portuguese citizens in the city. The city is also home to thousands of Macanese — people of mixed, predominantly Portuguese and Chinese heritage — according to residents’ estimates and the latest government census.
Historians widely view anti-colonial riots in 1966, which were influenced by China’s cultural revolution and met with a violent crackdown, as a turning point for the city. After an escalating diplomatic crisis, Portuguese authorities in effect succumbed to Beijing and the local Chinese Communist party chapter became the territory’s de facto leaders.
Now, as the city prepares to celebrate in December the 25th anniversary of its 1999 handover to Chinese control after more than 400 years of Portuguese administration, its Lusophone population faces a new set of challenges.
Crucially, a system giving Portuguese citizens preferential paths to residency ended last year. Many expats in the city add that Macau’s recognition in Portugal has diminished, meaning new arrivals have dwindled. “So, so few people are coming,” says Alexandre Leitão, the country’s consul-general for Macau and Hong Kong.
Portuguese is an official language but privately, lawyers and journalists point to the growing number of legal judgments and announcements given in Chinese only, and government officials’ lack of proficiency in it.
“There has been positive discrimination towards Portuguese nationals for about 20 years,” one longtime resident tells me, over Serra da Estrela, a highland sheep’s cheese, and Douro wine at the Clube Militar de Macau, a salmon-pink former officer’s club housing one of the city’s finest Portuguese restaurants. “But now, it’s more or less a level playing field.”
There are also reasons for the remaining Lusophone community to be cheerful, however. Expats point to efforts by both the Macau government and the authorities in Beijing to designate the city as China’s hub for relations with Portuguese-speaking countries, one that has become more important as the country seeks closer ties with the global south.
Macau will also promote its Portuguese history to attract tourists in efforts, endorsed by Beijing, to diversify its income away from the casinos. “I think Macau is a kind of door to the west,” says Carlos Álvares, chief executive of the Portuguese Banco Nacional Ultramarino and president of the Portugal-China Chamber of Commerce.
Over the course of June, the territory’s Portuguese expats celebrated the “month of Portugal”, with almost daily events promoting the country’s cinema, photography, literature and poetry.
Michel Reis, an adviser to the Macau government’s cultural bureau and a resident since 1990, says the city had incorporated Portuguese culture into its cultural programming too, pointing to a recent series of Fado performances at the city’s Dom Pedro V theatre and the upcoming Lusophonia Festival in October.
Events like these, he says, show Macau is serious about maintaining its heritage. “I would say that the Portuguese presence here is still quite strong. But it has to be preserved,” he tells me. “There has to be a constant effort to maintain these traits.”